Since gnocchi is still a bit heavy on starch and takes time to make, this recipe has been added to my list of special treats rather than regular dinners. I’ll try to take you through the recipe step by step. Start with cooked sweet potatoes that are well mashed. The cooked sweet potatoes could even be blended in the food processor to ensure maximum smoothness. The potatoes are then combined with arrowroot powder, which prevents them from falling apart, and almond flour.
The exact amount of flour and arrowroot powder used in the recipe can slightly vary (similar to when making real gnocchi). Therefore I suggest adding those ingredients in 1/2-cup increments until the dough is firm enough to form into a ball without being sticky. The dough will need to be able to be rolled into ropes and withstand simmering water. I ended up with about 1 cup of arrowroot powder and 2 cups of almond flour to get a good texture.
After folding in a frothy egg white, refrigerate the dough for at least half an hour to help it become more. Then prepare a workspace on the counter with some arrowroot powder so that the sweet potato doesn’t stick to the surface. If you aren’t already wearing an apron, grab one now! Arrowroot can get messy, at least in my kitchen.
Roll out the dough into long ropes using your hands. Then simply cut the ropes into pieces that are about an inch long. The next step is optional- to get traditionally shaped gnocchi, use the tines of a fork to flatten each piece. This is supposed to help the “pasta” hold sauce better.
Next the gnocchi is dunked into a large pot of boiling water. Do not crowd the pot or the pieces may stick together- just put a few pieces in at a time. Also it helps to try out two or three pieces first to make sure that they don’t disintegrate in the pot. After a minute the gnocchi will float to the top and you can remove them with a slotted spoon.
The gnocchi could be served at this point but I recommend pan-frying the pieces to brown them and add further flavor. If the gnocchi are sticking to the pan, it means that you are probably trying to turn them too soon. After browning the gnocchi, you can top it off with the sauce of your choice. For this recipe I used a brown butter and sage sauce. You could also use pesto, traditional tomato sauce, add sauteed vegetables, or whatever you prefer to have with typical pasta.
Ingredients
- 2 large sweet potatoes
- 2 cups almond flour
- 1 cup arrowroot powder, plus more for dusting
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- Pinch of garlic powder
- 1 egg white
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Poke the sweet potatoes with a fork and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 50 minutes or until soft. Remove from the oven and let cool.
- Peel the potatoes and place into a large bowl. Mash well. Add the flour, arrowroot powder, salt, baking soda, and garlic powder. Stir well to combine.
- Whisk the egg white until frothy. Gently fold it into the sweet potato mixture. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.
- Dust a work surface with arrowroot powder. Roll out a handful of the chilled dough into a long thin rope. Cut into 1-inch segments. Use a fork to slightly flatten each segment.
- Prepare a large pot of barely boiling water. Working in small batches, drop each piece of gnocchi into the water. Let cook for about one minute. When they float to the top, remove with a slotted spoon. Place into a colander to drain.
- Melt the ghee in a skillet over medium heat. Sear the gnocchi on each side to brown. Serve immediately.
Looks tasty! I have some leftover (boiled and mashed) sweet potato to use up. I might give it a try!
Please do! It’s a great recipe for using up leftover cooked sweet potato.
i just baked a butternut squash today. i wonder if this recipe would work with the squash?
Dawn, you can give it a try, but I’m not sure if the squash would hold together as well in the boiling water. Let us know if it works out!
Does this freeze well? Has anyone tried?
I haven’t tried freezing the gnocchi yet, if you try it let us know how it goes!
I have frozen it – works quite well! Just make sure to freeze on a cookie sheet so they do not get stuck together.
Is there a sub for almond flour? My husband is allergic but I’d like to try this recipe.
Hi Alycia- I actually don’t have a ready substitute for the almond flour. Coconut flour acts differently than almond flour, so other components of the recipe might need to change if you use that.
You could possibly try beesan or hazlenut flour!
Half tapioca, half coconut. If you go heavier on the tapioca than the coconut you get the same end result. Almond flour is far too expensive to be practical.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to get this to work, twice. First, I tried it straight as the recipe calls for, and they fell apart in the water almost as soon as I put them in. The second time I froze them solid first, to see if that made a difference. Unfortunately, it did not. They fried up well enough sort of like a tasty patty, but not like a gnocchi. Perhaps it was my technique, but definitely disappointed.
Sorry to hear that you’ve been having problems with the recipe! If you’re willing to try it again, perhaps add more flour to the recipe to keep the gnocchi from falling apart. Also I usually try out 2-3 gnocchi in the boiling water first to see if any adjustments need to be made, and if more flour needs to be added.
what else can I use instead of arrowroot powder?
Arrowroot powder does not have an automatic substitute; it replaces cornstarch in traditional gnocchi recipes, but cornstarch is not Paleo. Tapioca starch might work, but I have never used it.
please share the browned butter and sage sauce recipe!
I tried this recipe exactly as it is written and like above mine fell apart in the water. We then added coconut flour and put in the freezer for a few minutes and still didn’t turn out. So we baked the left over dough and ate them anyway.
I made these and they were soooo good!! Thank u 🙂
Hi there! These look yummy! I can’t wait to try them. I am adding this recipe to a round up for saturday. I do hope that is ok. if not, please let me know and I will remove it. Have a good weekend!
Has anyone tried or thought about what could work instead of the egg white? I’m not sure if it’s serving as a binder or…? in this recipe. We have a severe egg allergy in the house.
We loved this recipe in our gluten-free household. I have extra in the fridge and the freezer and will report back on how well they store. I was raised on gnocchi, and I am thrilled to have them back! The texture was perfect.
Regarding the gnocchi falling apart: my dough came together with 1.5 c almond flour and .75 c arrowroot in the food processor. I rolled it in a healthy dusting of arrowroot. The water has to be boiling, and the gnocchi shouldn’t be in the water for more than a minute or two.
I’m making my second batch of these! They were sooo delish! Thank you for sharing this recipe!!
I tried this recipe and it did not turn out at all. I used cornstarch instead of arrow root, I added almost double the amount of flour and I could not roll out the dough and when I tried cooking them they fell apart in the water. Any idea why?
Made them for dinner tonight. My kids had traditional gnocchi since they didn’t want the sweet potato version. The sweet potato version was WAY better. Awesome recipe. Does require quite a bit of effort but worth it. It does require quite a bit of almond flour and arrowroot however. I made a double batch and used about 4 cups of almond flour at least. Served with a brown butter sage sauce and paired with a pork roast. Really good.
I know this will sound silly, but I would love to try this recipe, but I am not sure how to “fold” the egg white into the mixture of sweet potatoes… can anyone give a little clarification on this please? Thank you!
I made this dish for my family tonight – subbing the sweetpotatoes for butternut squash. I ended up adding a cup of coconut flour as the recipe was too wet without more flour using a whole small butternut squash. They held up perfectly and were delish! I made a brown butter sage sauce with crispy bacon and a side of garlic greenbeans. YUM! Even my toddler ate her whole plate and my 7 year old declared it the best dinner ever. Thank you for this fab recipe! Will be making these again!
To anyone who is on the fence about trying this- DO IT! My husband COULD NOT get enough- he said he had to physically restrain himself from eating them all!!!
I have to say, while I boiled the water, I did not do a hard boil, and I think that helped them stay together. It’s like magic when they just float up to the top! I froze a second batch to have another night- we’ll see how long they last.
Thank you SO much for this recipe, they were AMAZING!!!!
Oh my gosh! These are the most delicious little parcels on heaven I’ve ever cooked! Thank you so much for the recipe it worked perfectly! I upped the ingredients slightly and we have so much left over and I can’t wait to eat them tomorrow. Thank you again!
Could we please have a more precise measurement with regards to the sweet potato? I’m not sure about what “large” is, my “large” may not be your “large” if you know what I mean….perhaps this could be why some are having issues with them falling apart?
most traditional gnocchi recipes call for 2 cups of yams and 2 cups of flours try 2 cups of yams
I agree with previous reviews – I would like to see this recipe specify a more precise measurement of sweet potatoes. I tried this recipe and it was a total disaster. The dough wouldn’t roll out, so I kept adding flour, adding flour, adding flour. I finally just decided to drop spoonfuls of dough into the water, and they stayed together for the most part and floated to the top, but when I tasted them they were watery and fell apart into a gritty blob in my mouth. So I added more and more flour and arrowroot, but it never quite worked. I gave up and added a few more eggs to the dough and fried some of it into pancakes. They were crispy on the outside, but pretty gluey on the inside. I threw away most of the dough and pancakes. It’s such a bummer to waste these ingredients. I think I was doomed from the beginning with having way too much sweet potato in the dough. I’d love to try this again though!
Can you please share the recipe for the brown butter and sage sauce?
My first attempt at these came out fairly well. Can you recommend an almond flour? I used Red Mill. Although I used my hands to mix the dough, I still taste more almond flour in the gnocchi than sweet potato, Any suggestions? Could the entire dough be mixed in a food processor?
Can you fold the egg white in before adding the flours?
We just had the gnocchi for the first time and it was delicious. I will definitely make this again. Make sure that you’re potato isn’t too big. My dough first was too liquid so I had to add some more almond flour and arrowroot starch. Tasted soo good!
Amazing. My children were standing by my side to eat these. I couldn’t make them fast enough.
I didn’t have arrowroot so I subbed potato starch. I did the whole thing in a food processor. Added the yolk to the mix. Rolled it out in the almond flour. Turned out fantastic! So delicious!!!! I served it with brown butter sage sauce, mushrooms and caramelized onions, and delicata squash in the side.
They tend to fall apart in the boiling process. Third time I decided to not boil them; straight to the pan with some clarified butter.
They were perfect!